Monday, February 16, 2015

The Hunger Games

As you know, I have started reading the 'Hunger Games' triology by Suzanne Collins, and, a few days ago, I've just finished the first book (and also watched the movie).

After I'll finish the second and third part, I'll write about them here, on blog, but, today, let's focus on the first book from the triology (and, of course, on the first movie).

First of all, let me indrotuce the main characters:

Katniss Everdeen

Katniss Everdeen is a 16 years old girl from the District 12. She volunteers as a tribute for the 74th edition of the Hunger Games,after her 12 years old sister, Primrose Everdeen was picked so

Peeta Mellark

Peeta Mellark is the male tribute who represents District 12 at the 74th edition of the Hunger Games. He also has two 'nicknames''; Katniss knew him as 'The Boy with the Bread' (cause, it's good to know that once, after Peeta burned two loaves of bread, he gave them to the starving Katniss who was staying outside, in the rain), and 'Lover Boy' (because he admits in front of the whole Panem that he's madly in love with Katniss).

Gale Hawthorne

Gale is Katniss's best friend. He's the oldest child of the Hawthorne family. He lives with his three younger siblings and with his mother, Hazelle (because his father died in the same mining accident as Katniss's father).

Haymitch Abernathy

and Effie Trinket

Haymitch Abernathy

Haymitch is the only living winner from the District 12 (he came back as a winner from the Games at the age of 15) and he is the menthor of Peeta and Katniss (who are also going to win the 74th edition of the Hunger Games).

Effie Trinket

Effie is the escort of the District 12's tributes (including Katniss Everdeen & Peeta Mellark, of course). She's trying to encourage the tributes to be happy about their upcoming participation in the Hunger Games (even if she doesn't really help them with that).

Another important characters:

Cinna, Katniss's stylist from the Capytol

Rue, the girl tribute from District 11

Primrose Everdeen, Katniss's sister

But, of course, the whole 'team' is a part of this list: Katniss's mom, Portia, Hazelle, Caesar Flickerman, Foxface, Cato, Thresh, etc.

Short summary

Many years before the events, the existing thirteen districts started a revolution against the Capitol. Too bad the Capitol have won, District 13 was destroyed and, as a punishment for the districts, an annual televisied death match called 'The Hunger Games' was invented & created by the Capitol. Two randomly-chosed participants, both male and female, from each districts, known as tributes will fight till death in this cruel, annual competition. In the first part of the triology, the 74th edition of the Hunger Games was organised and the chosen ones (from District 12) were Primrose Everdeen (whose place was taken by her older sister, Katniss, who volunteers as a tribute to save her beloved sibling from death), and Peeta Mellark, a baker boy from the District 12. They are escorted to the Capitol by their escort, Effie Trinket and their mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, a past winner of the Hunger Games from District 12 (but, in the past years, he's described more as a severe alcoholic). After they have been escorted to the Capitol, and Haymitch taught them how to survive in the Games (and how to earn lots of sponsors), they went training with the rest of the tributes, from District 1 to 12. While training, Katniss noticed the Career Tributes: Marvel, Glimmer, Cato and Clove (from District 1 and 2), who were illegally trained for the Hunger Games since a very young age, so they definitely have more chances to win. Before the Games have started, at the interview, Peeta impressed the public when he told Caesar Flickerman about his strong, painful love for Katniss Everdeen, the girl tribute who came here with him, so now their love will never be able to bloom.

When the Games have started, a few of the tributes have already died at the bloothbath from the Cornucopia (the place from where the tributes could get free supplies). Katniss took a bag and ran away with it as far as she could from the rest of the tributes, but Crane directed his agents to force her get back to them, by setting the forest on fire. Katniss runs into the Careers, who were allied with Peeta, but she succeeded to escape by climbing a huge tree. The Careers have been waiting for her downstairs, so Katniss had to knock a nest of poisinous bees onto them, killing Glimmer and forcing the others to run away. It's good to know that Rue, the female tribute from District 11 helped Katniss to notice the nest. Katniss ran away after getting Glimmer's bow & arrows, and then, she fell asleep. When she woke up she met Rue again, they became friends, they shared food and planned to destroy the Career's cache of supplies. Katniss succeeded again, and then she went to find Rue. Yeah, but Marvel have found Rue before Katniss did, and he killed Rue in front of her, so Katniss killed Marvel in a few seconds by throwing an arrow to his chest. After Rue's death, Katniss covers her body with flowers, making sure her action is captured on the broadcast. Then, the people from District 11 started a riot against the existing order.

Haymitch suggested a new rule for the Games in the name of Love: if they are from the same District, there's a possibility for two tributes to win the bloody competition, aka the Hunger Games. When she heared the announcement, Katniss went to find Peeta. He was hurt because of helping Katniss run away from the Careers, so she washed him, she cleaned his wounds, and she went after medicine to the Cornucopia, risking her life, because Clove caught her and almost killed her, but Thresh saved her life this time and killed Clove. The remaining tributes were Katniss, Peeta, Cato, Thresh and Foxface, who died by accident after she ate some poisinous forest fruits from Peeta's bag. Thresh died soon, too, so only Katniss, Peeta and Cato remained in the competition. Then, Crane's team created some kind of wolf-mutants, who were dangerous and caught Cato after Katniss throwed an arrow to his arm to save Peeta's life (cause Cato was strangling him). Then, Cato asked Katniss to kill him, because he didn't endure the pain caused by the wolves.

Then, a new announcement was made, namely the revocation of the new 'rule', so one of them (Katniss or Peeta) had to die. Katniss planned to 'suicide', by giving herself & Peeta the same poisinous forest fruits that have killed Foxface, so then, they were both declared as the winners of the 74thHunger Gamesedition.

They've got back to the Capitol, where Peeta got a new (fake) leg, because of his infected wounds, and Katniss got styled for the interview & crowning.

After all these, they've got back home, to District 12, where they had a new house at the "Winners Neighborhood" and became very rich.

Book vs. Movie

-my opinion-

Honestly, I find the book way better than the movie, because the movie has lots of deficiencies and some events happen too fast, compared to the book. Of course, the effects from the movie are gorgeous, that is for sure.My advice is to read the books first and watch the movies after that, so you can understand the story better.

The Hunger Games books in order:

-Hunger Games

-Catching Fire

-Mockingjay

The movies are based on the novels written by Suzanne Collins and the third one is separated into two parts: Mockingjay part 1 and part 2 (which wasn't released yet).